The North Dakota State Bison and Iowa Hawkeyes square off Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium on ESPN2.

The North Dakota State Bison look for a big statement victory after surviving back-to-back overtime games. Easton Stick is completing 64.2 percent of his passes for 451 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Stick has done a solid job through his first two games and has taken care of the ball. Darrius Shepherd and RJ Urzendowski have combined for 248 receiving yards and three touchdowns while Jeff Illies has four receptions. The North Dakota State Bison ground game is averaging 255 yards per contest, and Lance Dunn leads the way with 178 yards and two touchdowns. Defensively, NDSU is allowing 30.5 points and 409.5 yards per game. Nick DeLuca leads the Bison with 18 tackles, Brad Ambrosius has three sacks and Robbie Grimsley has one interception.

The Iowa Hawkeyes hope for a quick 3-0 start after outscoring their first two opponents by a score of 87-24. C.J. Beathard is completing 66.7 percent of his passes for 427 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Beathard has thrown at least one touchdown pass in six straight games. Matt VandeBerg and Jerminic Smith have combined for 283 receiving yards and two touchdowns while Akrum Wadley has four receptions. The Iowa Hawkeyes ground game is averaging 205 yards per contest, and LeShun Daniels, Jr. leads the way with 195 yards and three touchdowns. Defensively, Iowa is allowing 12 points and 357.5 yards per game. Ben Niemann leads the Hawkeyes with 12 tackles, Anthony Nelson has 3.5 sacks and Greg Mabin has three pass deflections.

It's no secret that North Dakota State is the best FCS team there is and has domainted that side of college football for years. However, the Bison have shown there's holes in this roster by needing overtime to win their first two games of the season, both taking place at home. Iowa is a possible playoff team and has shown great improvement on the offensive side of the ball to go along with a defense that was already one of the best in all of college football.

I'm not sure this game is that close with it taking place in Iowa. The Hawkeyes won't be overlooking anybody and should be able to overpower the Bison in the trenches. I like the Hawkeyes to win by at least two touchdowns in this spot.

Pick:

Iowa Hawkeyes

Randy

Randy Chambers has been with Sports Chat Place since 2014 and covers everything from the NFL to WNBA and tennis. Nobody works harder in this business in terms of content produced and amount of sports covered. Formerly a lead college football writer with Bleacher Report and has had his work featured at Fox Sports, CBS Sports and various other outlets.

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